WIELS | Contemporary Art Centre, Brussels

Visual artists from the Arab world can apply for a six-month residency as part of the Residency Program at WIELS | Contemporary Art Centre in Brussels, Belgium from January 1 to June 30, 2018.

The WIELS Residency Program is an international laboratory for emerging artists from all over the world. Located in a unique modernist building in Brussels, WIELS provides a framework for artists to pursue their practice and engage in current debates and research that examine the potentials of contemporary artistic production. WIELS provides its residents with a working studio (+/- 45m2) and a mentoring program for six months. During each residency, an optional public presentation or introduction of the work is organized. The resident receives flights, accommodation in a self-catering apartment, a monthly stipend, and reimbursement of visa costs.

This call is now closed. News of the successful applicant will be announced shortly!

APPLICATION

Applications must be submitted in English, include all the following material, and be sent by email to info@mophradat.org

D. Statement of purpose: In 250 words or less, describe your potential projects, ideas and expectations for the residency at WIELS.

E. References: Please provide the name, email, telephone number and postal address of three references who can comment on your recent work and artistic development on a professional level.

F. List of images: The titles on the list of images should correspond to those marked in the titles of the digital image files. Include the title, date, medium, dimensions and a brief description of each work (less than 50 words).

G. Documentation: A selection of up to 10 images and/or videos with your application. The image files should be sent via email with the application paperwork. Each image file must be titled with your Last Name, underscore, First Name, image number. Example: Smith_Amal01; Smith_Amal02

Files should be made available as a link (e.g. Vimeo or YouTube), or a downloadable file that does not expire provided by file-hosting services such as Dropbox or video-sharing websites. One video counts as one image, the duration does not matter. Video files of still artwork or documentation of artistic process will not be viewed. Videos should be also listed in the List of Images accompanying your application.

Mophradat will provide a selection committee composed of the WIELS artistic director and curators as well as the three artist mentors of the Residency Program, who will select candidates on the basis of the quality of their work and their potential to take full advantage of the program.

Candidates will be notified by email of the committee’s decision by October 1, 2017.

All applicants, whether selected or not, receive a response to their applications.

Due to the high volume of applications and the confidentiality of the selection process, Mophradat does not provide individual feedback explaining the reason an application was not selected.

Please do not call the WIELS or Mophradat office for selection results.

Mophradat’s homepage hosts an editorial project that publishes new and existing texts related to contemporary art practices and the languages used to discuss them. Over the coming months, the art collective Nile Sunset Annex (NSA) has been commissioned to be our editorial voice. NSA selects an art-related word each month that has a twist when translated between Arabic and English, and are finding, creating, or commissioning a text in both languages that relates to the selected word. NSA’s process is intended as self-educational and the glossary, rather than being prescriptive, will question the terms and their uses in both languages. As NSA describes, “the conversations that arise in attempts to find common ground or agree on the significance or etymology of certain words can be a space of potential.” NSA is working on this glossary with translator Ziad Chakaroun.

Nile Sunset Annex (NSA) primarily functions as an art space that puts on monthly exhibitions of artists’ work in a spare room in an apartment in Garden City, Cairo, but it also acts as a publishing house, a contemporary art collection, an archivist, an artist, an author, a bartender, a curator, and an installation team. Founded in January 2013, NSA is still evolving.

Untitled: upturnedhouse was initially shown in New York, where it was installed in a very ad hoc way. This process had to be radically changed when it was agreed that it would be shown in the Carnegie. All its failings exploded into reality. The challenge was to retain its haphazard character, but to construct it as a permanent object. It was as if my love of the conflicting nature of making and un-making were being meticulously scrutinized as a badly told lie — I felt like a criminal whose devious activities were on trial. It was all for good, though; I have been giving my ways of making and un-making a tougher, mental acknowledgement. My works are now being shown more than once — something I do not have much experience with, since in the past my works have been shown and then destroyed, with some materials being salvaged for future use. Making more permanent works has made me more resilient and purposeful about my building and re-building methods. It can be gruelling, and yes, the resulting works are hard won, not necessarily always in a good way. I’m still hanging onto an uneasy relationship with whether the works are ever finished or not, because it generates excitement and uncertainty. I never know if more should be added or removed. I don’t doubt what I am doing, but I want the freedom to change my mind and to be able to undo today’s job tomorrow, regardless of whether it turns out well or badly. I want a fluid thinking process to be realized in the material reality of the work itself, to try and narrow the gap between thought and action.

Phyllida Barlow, in conversation with Vincent Fecteau in Bomb Magazine.